PTT-100 45 gram Solar Argos/GPS PTT

Our ongoing developmental efforts to miniaturize our PTTs resulted in the introduction of our second generation GPS PTT unit in 2003. At a weight of 45g, this PTT allowed biologists to conduct home range and long range studies on smaller birds, such as wood storks, Houbara Bustards, and various birds of prey. The 45g Solar Argos/GPS PTT has the same capabilities as the 70g model.

Equipped with the standard 3D firmware it records GPS positions (accurate to ±18m) together with speed, heading and altitude data, and transmits the recorded data to Argos at intervals ranging from every day to every week on an SiV™ schedule. SiV™ technology conserves power and improves reception by limiting Argos transmission to those times when the satellites are most likely to be overhead. The duty cycle programming is flexible allowing the user to select the times of the GPS fixes as well as the frequency of data uploads to Argos to maximize data return while minimizing Argos costs. It is available with multi-season duty cycle programming, allowing up to 5 seasons which repeat annually. In common with all Microwave Telemetry solar PTTs, the 45g Solar Argos/GPS PTT is microprocessor controlled and contains a battery, thus making data collection and transmission possible at night (in contrast to less sophisticated PTTs which transmit only during daytime when the solar cells are exposed to light.)

The 45g Solar Argos/GPS PTT is configured as a backpack and has been successfully used to track Wood Storks, Black Storks, Bonelli's Eagles, Houbara Bustard, and Bar-headed Geese. Since 2003 we have also built a special 50g patagial mount version of this PTT which is used to track and monitor the behavior of Condors.

Features

Internal sixteen channel micro power GPS receiver

GPS accuracy ± 18m

Solar powered

Microprocessor controlled battery charge management to allow the PTT to charge during the day and collect data and transmit at night

Temperature, Battery Voltage & Activity sensors

SiV™ transmission schedule optimized for the new JTA* schedule: the PTT transmits only at times when the likelihood of a satellite pass is greatest, and to contain Argos costs the PTT is programmed to transmit data during only 2 Argos billing quadrants on the transmission day

Programmable for up to 5 duty cycle seasons (defined by mm/dd calendar dates)

Programmed to take GPS fixes at user-specified hours, and to transmit at user specified intervals

GPS parsing software that outputs locations into easily manageable data files and kml maps that can be viewed in Google Earth™